I get bored with my house all the time.  If it were up to me, we’d move once a year.  I can’t get Dan to go along with this plan, so I’ve got make do with the house we’ve got.

Almost a year ago, we painted our upstairs living area, hallway, bathroom, eating area, and kitchen.  I still love the look.  But of course, I want to redo everything already because 1) I like change and 2) I get bored staring at the same look for more than a few months.

But since repainting and refurnishing and the like costs more in dollars and effort than we have to go around, I find little ways to change things up that give me something new to look at without spending every dollar in our savings account or moving homes.

When I saw this tutorial for painting clear vases, I knew I stumbled on my next project.  (For more home DIY projects, check out my DIY home board on Pinterest.)  I’ve got a small stash of these clear florist vases, and I picked up two more at my local thrift store for $2 each.  I wanted extras in case of a craft fail.  Because I usually fail at least a handful of times before a craft sticks.

I mostly followed the directions in the tutorial, but since I couldn’t find the Permenamel paint primer, I just went without.  But I did find the Permenamel paint itself, and I picked up four colors: marshmellow, crocus yellow, chili pepper, and tangerine.

While I didn’t prime these, I did wash them and let them dry thoroughly before painting them.  Once they were dry, I squeezed a generous portion of the paint inside the vase and into the bottom of the vase, turned it mostly upside-down, and tilted the vase back and forth, so the paint slid down and around the sides of the vases.

Once the paint made it’s way about halfway down the vase, I went in with a soft bristled paint brush and swept the paint down the sides of the glass.  I covered the inside of the vase as best as I could and didn’t worry about streaks because I couldn’t see them on the outside.  After I coated the vases, I turned them upside down onto a sheet of newspaper for about a minute to let all the paint from the bottom drip down, then flipped them over and let them dry for about 24 hours.

The next day, I repeated this process for the second coat.

Once they dried, I could barely make out any streaks on the outside.  The inside looked a bit streaky, but I don’t care because if I tried to perfect any craft, I’d never finish it.  And if a friend of mine comes over and inspects my vases and is no longer my friend because they are streaky on the inside, well then, that’s a bad friend.  So I didn’t loose any sleep over the streaky insides.

I am displaying my pretty painted vases in my family room to spice up Kate’s toy shelf area.  I am not sure how water will hold up inside these vases, so I am not planning to use them to hold fresh flowers.  (And, for goodness sake, do not put anything edible in them.)  I like them how they are, just painted.  But I might stick some fakey floral stuff in there, you know, what I want to change things up, again.

So I’m happy because this craft turned out for me, it gives me something new to look at, and Dan’s happy we don’t have to move.  Yet.